Conditional expression explains molecular evolution of social genes in a microbe.

ABSTRACT: Conflict is thought to play a critical role in the evolution of social interactions by promoting diversity or driving accelerated evolution. However, despite our sophisticated understanding of how conflict shapes social traits, we have limited knowledge of how it impacts molecular evolution across the underlying social genes. Here we address this problem by analyzing the genome-wide impact of social interactions using genome sequences from 67 Dictyostelium discoideum strains. We find that social genes tend to exhibit enhanced polymorphism and accelerated evolution. However, these patterns are not consistent with conflict driven processes, but instead reflect relaxed purifying selection. This pattern is most likely explained by the conditional nature of social interactions, whereby selectio

SUBMITTER: de Oliveira JL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6650454 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature